While my heart goes out to the people living in Attawapiskat, it is clear that if we have given these people $90 million recently there is something terribly wrong.

While the opposition jumps on the “blame the government bandwagon,” it appears that if they are guilty of anything it is not to have installed serious controls on how our money is spent. Why not use this money to help train these people and relocate them nearer to where the jobs are so they can be self sufficient and not rely on our tax dollars?

When the smell clears I am fairly sure we will see a great amount of mismanagement and/or theft of the money.

Tom Duncan, Chilliwack

Regular audits of native bands needed

The Province reported that at least 90 people in Attawapiskat First Nation have resorted to living in two construction workers’ portables equipped with only two washrooms and four showers. Others are using buckets as toilets.

Assuming this information is accurate, such a tragedy is surely Ottawa’s responsibility. Imagine the Harper government blithely handing the CBC, say, a series of cheques for $90 million without withering scrutiny by federal auditors. Not a chance!

Meanwhile Section 61 of the Indian Act clearly empowers government to examine First Nations’ books, even if band councils resist such an initiative as patronizing and invasive of what they believe are their sovereign rights.

Time is long overdue for each and every First Nation to be subject to annual, published financial audits.

W. Baird Blackstone, Tsawwassen

Here’s a shocking idea: make transit users pay

Regarding the problem of skyrocketing fare evaders, if this really is a problem it can be easily solved by increasing property and gasoline taxes. After all, we can’t have the people using the transit actually paying for those services.

Ed Braun, Vancouver

Kids are our future . . . you’ve been warned

While $580 million went to fix B.C. Place’s roof, we have to tell kids they can’t play on playground equipment because it is not safe?

Salaries and operating costs at ICBC are not contributing to any proposed rate increase. When you take inflation into account, our salaries and operating costs are about the same as 10 years ago. For every $1 we receive, $0.88 goes to paying out claims; only five cents go for operating costs, which is low compared to the industry average.

Our CEO, Jon Schubert, says that if we end 2011 with a loss, he and our management team will not receive any bonuses.

With regards to profits, our positive net income comes from the optional side of our business (the basic side is operating at a loss) and is being sustained by investment income, which cannot be relied upon going forward.

I don’t use marijuana, and I don’t think I will in the future. But if I choose to, what business is it of the government what I ingest?

With deference to Dr. Pat McGeer, he and his colleges prescribe drugs with side effects that are far worse than those of pot.

It about time governments quit wasting millions of dollars fighting a problem they cannot win.

Fred Bellsmith, White Rock

Look to Portugal for guidance

All the righteous citizens who want to continue the costly, failing efforts to prohibit marijuana should look beyond Ottawa for guidance. Portugal decriminalized all drug use in 2000. Drug use has not risen significantly, and use by adolescents has dropped. Many Portuguese youngsters say they lost interest in pot when it lost the glamour of being forbidden by the establishment.

Tony Eberts, New Westminster

Should we use 40-year-old science for cancer care, too?

Dr. McGeer would have us rely on 40-year-old science to prove his point. Shall we rely on 40-year-old science for cancer treatment, spinal injury treatment, etc. as well?

Judi Yeadon Leger, Delta

Was Gwyn Morgan a socialist in his youth?

In his column on Occupy, Gwyn Morgan repeats the adage,“If you’re young and you’re not a socialist you have no heart; if you’re older and you’re still a socialist, you have no brain.” Does it mean that Gwyn was a socialist in his youth? Or, does it mean he’s heartless?

Come out of the closet Gwyn; tell us about your socialist past.

Joe Barrett, Vancouver

Having a military doesn’t mean having a “war machine”

Letter writer Hilda Bechler confuses essential military defence with a “war machine” eager to fight all and sundry. Defence is an essential element for democracy and whilst pacifism may be a nice theory, it not does not deter the real war mongers out there.

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